Dictionary Reviews

I used to be puzzled about John Dillinger and Al Capone but not anymore.

This book is great for kids interested in detective work. It gives how-to's and tells about famous detectives and criminals both real and fictional. Everything is in easy-to-find alphabetical order. It's fun, entertaining, and informative. My daughter loves it (she helped write this review).

For the beginner who is interested in acquiring a good command of basic German, I would highly recommend this course. The course begins at square one and guides the learner step-by-step through the German language, starting with such topics and greetings, time, and directions, and moving on towards the end with topics like describing where you grew up and expressing your opinions on various subjects. Each unit contains lots of speaking and listening exercises, and the course center around the tapes, which are easy-to-follow and clearly recorded. The entire book is divided into two parts, each ending with a cumulative quiz so you can test your progress (answers to the quizzes and all exercises are in the back). Every page is colorful and enhanced with drawings and photos. There is also a lot of practical, cultural, and historical information on Germany interspersed throughout. One particularly good thing about this course is its relevancy--it teaches you the grammar and vocabulary you will really use, not just "textbook" stuff. For those who are not so good with formal grammar it is also good, because although you will learn it, it is approached in small steps and you are never thrown too much at once. The emphasis is on getting you to speak and understand. There is also a balance of touristy vs. more conversational topics--you'll learn to book a hotel room and order food in a restaurant, for example, but you'll also learn to talk about your family and your career. So it's a good course for serious tourists as well as people who want to eventually achieve a high level of proficiency in German. At the end of this course you should be able to get around in a German-speaking country without too much hassle and to engage in basic conversations with German-speaking people. I'd say that this course is equivalent to about a year of college-level German, so it's definitely more than just a simple tourist course. I own this course and I have used it, so if you have any further questions before you buy it, feel free to e-mail me.

My only complaint about the course is that it centers around story-line of a young Romanian new to Germany, and this story can be hard to get into and follow if you haven't seen the videos (which are broadcast only in England). But this does not affect the learning process because understanding the story-line is not crucial to the actual course--it is more of a side-story designed to keep you entertained.

This course was an excellent start for me. It did not focus on grammar, but at the same time it did not completely ignore it. The pace of learning was good, and much of the learning occurred naturally without rote memorization or drill. I studied the course for three months before moving to Germany and was able to get along OK as soon as I arrived.

This is not simply a book about word origins, because what Hugh Rawson is writing about are the popular misconceptions we have about where words come from. The word "hooker" predates the Civil War and General Joseph Hooker while "crap" was in use prior to Thomas Crapper's invention of the Valveless Water Waste Preventer. Besides such "Imaginary eponyms" Rawson also considers "Spurious acronyms," "Geographic ghosts," "Erudite errors" and "False refinement" to explain why what we know is not true. The author of "Wicked Words" and "A Dictionary of Euphemisms & Other Doublespeak," Rawson certainly has the credentials to correct our misconceptions on over 1,000 entries, with words from "adultery" to "zip" and phrases from "bit the bullet" to "vicious circle." This is a delightful book that you will find fascinating whether you are a teacher trying to get students interested in the wonderful world of words or are just interested in knowing how words and phrases enter our common usage. Give yourself a treat and learn about one word/phrase a day. You have a couple of years of fun here for sure.

A great book for anyone who "thinks" they know where some very popular words and phrases come from.

This dictionary is great for many reasons:
-small size: it can fit easily in a coat pocket
-number of words: despite its small size, this dictionary has over 100,000 definitions
-an extensive reference section: contains 105 pages of reference, with everything from heat index/windchill factors to the entire greek alphabet.
This dictionary is great, because it contains so much of the information I want to know, besides proper word spellings and defnitions. A must buy for any student.

I do a lot of writing; I am a self-proclaimed "wordsmith" who obsesses over using the best word possible. Spelling is important to me as well; in fact I am shocked at how many so-called "professionals" tolerate poor spelling.

This dictionary is truly an "essential resource." With more than 100,000 entries and definitions, usage notes, word histories, illustrations,biographical and geographical names, as well as special reference sections, this book is a valuable resource for people like me who believe that words mean something, and that the pen is mightier than the sword.

The Oxford Essential Dictionary is truly "the first name in reference."

Si se pudiera hablar de un diccionario de diccionarios de la lengua espanola, ese es precisamente el de Maria Moliner, quien dedico su vida a la realizacion de una obra capital de referencia, no solo para los hispanoparlantes, sino tambien para todos aquellos que se acerquen a la lengua de Cervantes y Quevedo. Una adquisicion indispensable para toda biblioteca.

Es una hazaña lexicográfica, pues permite encontrar palabras que uno no sabe que existen. Se puede navegar en él casi como en el ciberespacio. Permite además crear neologismos perfectamente legítimos. Aporta gran cantidad de información gramatical con ejemplos tomados siempre de la lengua viva, así como formas de construcción y pautas de pronunciación para extranjeros. Incluye revisiones críticas de los criterios de la Real Academia. No es perfecto -sin embargo-, por sus omisiones, pero es más consistente, más rico y más confiable que el de la Real Academia. Si usted trabaja con palabras, "this is a must".

This dictionary is a wonderful learning tool for beginners in Spanish who are looking to broaden their vocabulary and learn correct grammar usage of words or verbs. This book does not present a diverse selection of vocabulary or expressions as it remains true to its title "Starter Spanish Dictionary" thus not intimidating the student with difficult terminology. The book focuses on everyday vocabulary and how it would be used in a phrase that which all beginners need in order to build their confidence while learning a very useful and exciting language. This dictionary is presented in a user friendly format and can be read like a book. This is a great purchase for beginners who wish to strengthen their basic vocabulary in Spanish.

This book is appropriately named. You're not going to come here as your *complete* source for English-Spanish translation needs, but it is a fantastic introductory reference source. In fact, it is so immaculately designed and presented that you can actually read it straight through as if it were a novel. Spanish actually seems easy to learn, just as the book cover claims.

I bought this book in combination with 'Buscalo' (see my review elsewhere on these pages). Together they make a very effective package towards breaking out of the trap of beginner's Spanish.

Aug 2003 - I've reviewed abt 15 eng-span dictionaries and this is the best. very clear font, easy to read, 50,000 words eng to span and 50,000 span to eng. a happy medium between a pocket and full size dictionary but has probably all teh words you need unless you're speaking very advanced spanish. the same oxford series for french, german and italian are also the best in those languages i believe for the same reasons as above. cheap price too!

This dictionary has a nice print that is easy on the eye. The definitions are clear and give examples of usage so you can be sure you are using the appropriate word. The dictionary even includes computer and internet terms. This is a great dictionary to have on hand for study or travel.

New abbreviations in russian language 1996-1999
Edited by I.V.Fagradiants
Ye.G.Kovalenko, A.V.Kisilev, S.V.Kurbatov, S.K.Lichak, A.N.Malinovskiy, I.V.Fagradiants, A.M.Shatalin.
ISBN 5933860018
Release date: 12/ 2001 (3th edition)
Published by: ETS Publishing House (Moscow...in site free online version for test of dictionary)
About 10000 terms.
soft cover, 13x20 centimeters
160 pages.

This edition contains about 10000 new abbreviations and consists of two parts. The first one includes abbreviations not included in the 'New dictionary of Russian abbreviations' as well arisen in Russian within 1996-1999. In the second part there are the abbreviated and complete names of the Russian Federation governmental and federal bodies of the executive authorities on 01.04.99 as well the rules of their spelling.
The dictionary is designed for the widest circles of users.
Examples in PDF format first, second and third...

... This edition contains about 10000 new abbreviations and consists of two parts. The first one includes abbreviations not included in the 'New dictionary of Russian abbreviations' as well arisen in Russian within 1996-1999. In the second part there are the abbreviated and complete names of the Russian Federation governmental and federal bodies of the executive authorities on 01.04.99 as well the rules of their spelling.
The dictionary is designed for the widest circles of users. ...

Like any master of parody, Flaubert doesn't go completely overboard with this satire of the "...For Dummies" books of his day. If we know a bit about Flaubert, we know that his "definitions" in the book are tongue in cheek, but it's actually possible that a member of the French upper middle class in Flaubert's time would have picked this up and thought it a good handy reference book. Priceless, just priceless.

This is great humor, and the accepted ideas it mocks are actually remarkably similar to the accepted ideas of our own time. Flaubert has a way of stating these "facts" that holds them up to the light of his brilliant ridicule. Because a dictionary can contain pretty much anything, Flaubert uses this as a platform to discuss views on art, politics, philosophy, food, animals, and just about everything else. Don't expect, however, to read this and just take its opposite in order to understand Flaubert's mind -- sometimes there is double irony here, and the author is himself ambivalent about the proper "definitions" of the words he lists.

Overall, this is a genuinely funny read, and a useful insight into the petty bourgeois society (similar to our own) Flaubert loved to mock.

"ARTISTS. All charlatans. Boast of their disinterestedness (old-fashioned). Express astonishment that they dress like everybody else (old-fashioned). They earn insane amounts, but fritter it all away. Often asked to dine out. A woman artist cannot be anything but a whore."

Flaubert's satirical reference work, the Dictionnaire des Idées Reçues, reveals in a marvellously condensed form the writer's attitude toward the French bourgeois society in which he was brought up. It is a sort of guidebook to19th-century crassness, triteness, pomposity, and irrationalism decked out to look like reason. Clearly Flaubert regarded his own social class with a mixture of detestation, boredom, and intense fascination. He found both comic and tragic possibilities in this cultural stratum, which he mined relentlessly for the realistic details of his novels Madame Bovary, L'éducation sentimentale, and Bouvard et Pécuchet.

In the early 1850s (while at work on Madame Bovary) Flaubert referred in several letters to his "sottisier," a compendium of trite opinions, of the ideas that "ferment in the brains of the brainless." Flaubert never published his dictionary, although in a letter to his mistress, Louise Colet, he hinted that he intended to do so eventually. Topical dictionaries and digests of knowledge were popular in France, especially among the upwardly mobile, who may have fancied that posession of snippets of miscellaneous information conferred a patina of erudition, and made one's dinner-party conversation more sparkling. Flaubert must have enjoyed parodying the entire concept of the "authoritative" reference work; his private compendium was arranged in alphabetical order, with ludicrous cross-references, secondary definitions (which generally contradict the first one), and a tone of pompous omniscience.

The Dictionary's stock of platitudes served Flaubert as a sourcebook for the opinions of many characters in the novels Madame Bovary, L'éducation sentimentale, and Bouvard et Pécuchet. This work, as well as being enjoyable and witty reading for its own sake, is an indispensable artist's eye view of mid-nineteenth century bourgeois mores, and also provides some insight into the paradox the author struggled with in his novels: how to create pure art out of pure vulgarity.

I used this book for when I was doing IB US History and also AP American History. This book is full of detailed explanations for cases and incidents.

This dictionary of American History is amongst the best out there. It was very informative in my classes and very helpful for AP/IB exams. I heavily suggest this book for students or people with interest in American History.